


It's Not Cheating If It's All Within The Family

by iamisaac



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Incest, Infidelity, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 17:25:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5635504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamisaac/pseuds/iamisaac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Teddy’s relationship with James Sirius takes an unexpected (and rather unwelcome) turn.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Not Cheating If It's All Within The Family

Teddy opened the door to his boyfriend James’s bedroom. Two young men sprang to opposite ends of the bed with alarmed haste. And Teddy, leaning back against the closed door, stood dumbstruck.

“Geez, Ted; you could knock,” grumbled Al, grabbing a pillow to protect his modesty.

“What were you…” Teddy pulled himself up. It was quite obvious what they had been doing. Instead, he said grimly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t anticipate finding my boyfriend in bed with another man. Especially not his brother.”

“It’s not cheating if it’s all within the family,” Albus said casually.

Teddy looked at James. His boyfriend was sitting, hunched up, on the far end of Albus’s bed, looking pale and ill. His legs were drawn up in front of him, and he was hugging them. He looked terrible. And Teddy knew Al well enough to know that his flippant repartee was covering up a good deal of anxiety, too. Albus had been a sensitive kid – too sensitive, too easily hurt: he had created a mask as protection – become the joker to prevent the joke being on him.

Teddy sat down heavily on James’s bed, opposite them. “How long –“ he began.

Al wriggled into a more comfortable position. James, wearing a T-shirt and nothing else, still had neither moved nor spoken since the moment Teddy entered the room.

“Always, pretty much,” Al replied, when it became obvious that James wasn’t going to be saying anything any time soon. “Before we even realised that we weren’t supposed to. You know.”

“No,” said Teddy grimly, “I don’t.”

Albus’s mask slipped for a second. “You won’t tell anyone?”

Teddy gave a humourless laugh. “Who am I supposed to tell? Grandmother? _Harry_?”

“Do you hate me?” The first time James had spoken, and the words dragged out of him slowly, painfully.

“Shit. I don’t know, James.” Teddy could feel his hair changing colour under the stress. He usually had the whole metamorphmagic under control. But then he didn’t usually have to deal with discovering James in an incestuous relationship with his younger brother. “If… if I asked you to promise never to do it again, would you?”

“If he did, he’d be lying,” Albus said sharply. “He tried, first couple of months you two were together. It nearly killed me.” Al said the last few words humorously, but Teddy knew he meant it.

“Teddy, I love you.” The heartbreak was clear in James’s voice – but it wasn’t Teddy who’d been fucking someone else. “I can’t lose you.”

“But you can’t give up Albus, either.”

James looked away. “Sounds sick when you put it like that, doesn’t it,” he mumbled. It was not a question.

“You could always do both of us,” Al suggested brightly. Again with the joke which was not quite a joke. He shrugged as the other two looked at him. “What? I wouldn’t mind. I’ve always thought Teddy was quite fit.”

“Albus, shut up,” said Teddy wearily. He flicked his wand at the door, locking it and encasing the room in a silence bubble so that no one, even directly outside, would be able to hear what was going on in there. “Should’ve done that earlier,” he said. “In fact, I’ve got to tell you… I wish you’d bloody thought to do that in the first place.”

“You’d rather not know?” asked Al.

“”Call me a coward, but yes.”

“We could always do something about that.”

“Al…” said James, warningly.

Albus sighed. “Apparently that’s not an option.” He looked at Teddy. “So what now?”

Teddy looked at James. “James?”

James buried his head in his knees. “Whatever you want.”

“Sounds great,” Teddy said sarcastically, “except you’ve both made it more than clear I don’t have any choice at all.”

James said nothing. Al opened his mouth to say something, glanced at James, and shut it again. If anything, Teddy thought, that was worse than Albus’s crass comments had been. Al cared about James. Too much – in oh, so many ways. But enough that getting Teddy out of the picture – which would, of course, leave Al to have James to himself – was not what Albus was aiming for. He wanted James’s happiness above his own. And that, ironically, made it all so much harder for Teddy.

He loved James. Even now, Teddy knew that much. And James loved him, despite… well, _that_. And Al loved James and James loved Al, and sweet Merlin, this was so unbelievably fucked up.

“Show me,” he said abruptly.

Both Potter boys stared at him. 

“What?” said Al.

“I need to – to see. To understand.” He managed an ironic twist of the lips at Al. “You were offering to let me fuck you, earlier, if you remember.”

“No,” said James, flatly.

“Whatever I want,” Teddy reminded him.

“And anyway, it’s not so bad for you. It’s not like you’ve got anything Teddy’s never seen before,” Al pointed out. “I’m the one who should be complaining here.”

“In the circumstances,” Teddy pointed out politely, “I think I have the best rights to that role.”

Albus flicked a glance at Teddy. “You mean it?”

Teddy, wondering whether he’d gone completely crazy, nodded. Of course he wanted to see his boyfriend get off with his own brother. There was nothing at all weird in that, was there? Ten minutes ago, Teddy had thought he had a fantastic, functional relationship with a guy he adored. Now, he had… he didn’t even know what he had.

Albus slid himself across the bed to James, and stroked his brother’s hair. James looked across at Teddy with a big, pleading, wide-eyed stare. Teddy looked back impassively. Albus put his hand under James’s chin, and gently turned the young man’s head to his own, kissing him gently on the lips. Then, as James responded, Al kissed him more, harder – tongues and all. Teddy watched. The two boys were so similar in looks. Teddy had never realised that before: he’d always been concentrating on James. 

Thing was, they looked good together. Really good. James had stopped hugging his knees and settled for hugging his brother instead. They kissed as if they were never going to stop, and it hurt to watch it, even as Teddy felt himself growing hard. Albus and James weren’t fuck-buddies. They were lovers. And Teddy should walk away right now, break up with James – let James work out his dysfunctional relationship with his own brother and keep totally out of it. No one need know why they’d broken up. People broke up all the time. It didn’t usually mean that they were committing incest.

James broke away from Al, his hand nonetheless still trailing down his brother’s back.

“Is that enough?” he asked Teddy. Teddy was silent. “Why are you making us do this?” James asked miserably. “Is it just a way of humiliating me before you dump me? God knows I deserve it. But…” He fought a battle with himself; Teddy could see it playing out on his face. “…Is there any hope?”

“I don’t know,” Teddy said honestly. “I don’t know to any of it – why I asked you to do it, whether there’s any hope. I’m so fucking confused, James.”

Albus was looking at him too. Two such similar faces, side by side. Brothers. Lovers. And Teddy.

“Ted…” Al began. 

Teddy cut across him. “If it was the other way around,” he said to James. “If it was me – hell, if you’d found me in bed with your brother, which wouldn’t even be illegal – how would you feel?”

“Shit,” James admitted. 

“I don’t think I can do this,” Teddy said, in a sudden rush of words. “Not – not wondering every time you’re somewhere I’m not, who you’re with and what you’re doing. How can I – how many other secrets are you keeping from me?”

James grimaced. “Isn’t this enough?”

“How can I trust you?” Teddy’s voice was anguished. He wanted – he desperately wanted – James to come up with some answer, some reason why things could be okay. He wanted the moon on a stick. It was never going to happen. How could it?

“I swear to you, there’s nothing else.” James smiled mournfully. “I can’t blame you for not believing me, though.”

“It’s true, though,” Al said, suddenly rejoining the conversation. “Plus, all the bastard can talk about is you all the time. Quite honestly, I was getting sick of the sound of your name. Teddy this, and Teddy that…”

“You’re not helping,” Teddy said.

Al shrugged. “I was just trying to say that Jamie worships the ground you bloody walk on. Stop digging your fingernails into me, James, you know it’s true.” He ran his hands through messy black hair. “If we could stop, we would. I don’t particularly want my brother hating me forever for losing him the one person he ever loved. And he will, if you leave him.”

Teddy’s chest was suddenly too tight. All three of them were as fucked as each other. Teddy was devastated at the moment. And if he left James, James would be devastated. Then James would hate Albus and _Al_ would be devastated. But how could Teddy stay with James, knowing that James and Albus were… God, this was all such a mess.

“If…” said Al tentatively. The other two gave him a look of deep mistrust and he put his hands up. “Hey, I’m just trying to find an answer here.”

“If it’s some bloody joke, I don’t want to know,” Teddy snapped at him.

“It isn’t.” And suddenly Teddy saw – really _saw_ \- the over-sensitive, caring kid that Albus had been.

“Okay,” he said, more softly.

“Just if – oh Merlin, this is going to come out wrong and you’re both going to hate me,” Albus said nervously. “Oh well, here goes. If James only sees me when you’re – I dunno, around?”

“I’m supposed to sit and watch you having sex?” Teddy asked, disbelievingly. “Is this revenge for getting you to kiss?”

“No!” Albus ran his hands through his hair again. It was impressively untidy. “I just mean, you’ll know where he is and with who, and maybe-at-your-flat,” he said in a rush. “You could be in charge and say when we could meet and…” He broke off. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?” he said.

“No,” said James bluntly. “It’s mine. I’m the one cheating on my boyfriend. I’m the one who got you into all this -”

“You so did not!” Al interjected.

“I’m older than you, that makes it my responsibility,” James said.

“James, I’m twenty-one.”

“You weren’t, though.”

Albus snorted. “How to state the bleeding obvious.” He looked at Teddy. “It’s not much of an answer, I know,” he said apologetically.

“No,” agreed Teddy.

“Don’t leave him.” For a moment, Al’s face was as woebegone as James’s. It was weird to have your boyfriend’s lover pleading with you not to break up with him, but Teddy knew that Albus genuinely meant it. “We can – can try not to… you know.”

Teddy looked at him sadly. “But we all know that won’t work, don’t we?”

Albus nodded. “Fuck.”

“You’re right,” Teddy said. “It’s a shit idea. But it’s the only one we’ve got.” He got up, and went over and kissed the top of James’s head gently. “So I guess,” he said, “we’re going to have to go with that.”


End file.
